by Dani Hoots
“Wouldn’t you if it were to save me?”
I didn’t know how to answer that. Yes, when I thought he was dead, I was hoping that maybe if I found Sanshli, if I was able to go back to the future, that he would be alive and well. But I didn’t want to get my hopes up, I didn’t want to become obsessed with one thing only to find out that wasn’t the truth, that I really did lose him and that there was no way to get him back. I had worked so hard to let my emotions be drowned out by logic that I wasn’t one to go on such idealistic quests like my brother was doing.
I fidgeted with my fingers. “You know I would go after Sanshli either way. But I wouldn’t get my hopes up. I know that life sometimes doesn’t go how we plan. But as for the gem, I have no idea where we should hide it in order to be sure it’s safe.”
We sat there silent, thinking. Then Jack started laughing.
“What is it?” I asked, wondering what idiotic place he could have thought of. This was usually how our missions went, with him concocting some plan, even though it would probably be a death trap, and then I would go along with it anyways. It always ended up okay, for the most part.
“How well can you control your powers?” he asked.
I shrugged. Honestly, I didn’t think I was that great, as Dan had only two days to train me. I needed more training for sure, but I was capable of something now. “All right. I’m figuring it out. Why?”
He grinned. “Then I know the perfect place to put it. The safest place in all the systems, at least for a while. Just trust me.”
I hated it when he made that smile and told me to trust him. It meant that we were going to get in a lot of trouble if we were caught.
Yet I could never say no.
CHAPTER 21
Of course, that was what Jack thought up. He was such an idiot. I swore I was surrounded by idiots. But then again, I had come up with some pretty ridiculous plans in the past. But this one outdid them tenfold.
Jack wanted me to figure out if I could use my powers to place the gem inside something solid. And what was that solid thing? Oh, right, it was the trophy for the Recar Races.
Yes, the races even existed way back when. They seriously had to have existed since Recar became habitable. Crime lords and races, that’s what this planet was all about.
I didn’t know if that made this planet more fun or if it made it more ridiculous. I just couldn’t be sure. Probably both, as Jack was giddy with excitement to be involved in the races once more. Quirky didn’t even begin to describe him, I swore.
So I concentrated on making solids morph into each other, without ruining the gem. I had a feeling if the gem was something from Sanshli, then there was no way that it would be destroyed so easily. Which was definitely a good thing, though I still would be careful. I didn’t want my only chance of going home to be ruined because I messed up. That is, if I really had a home, and if we would really get sent back into the future. It was all up for debate, but I knew the only way to find out was by finishing this mission once and for all.
I sat at the bar, trying to put peanuts through a beer bottle. Yes, seriously. Jack figured it would be the same as putting a gem in a trophy base. I didn’t quite see his logic in that, but I never did understand his logic. Ever.
And to answer your question, I did feel ridiculous. Really, really ridiculous.
Not to mention that so far I hadn’t gotten it to work. It was frustrating, to say the least. I just wished Dan was around, helping me. He would have probably put a gun to my head and told me to do it before he pulled the trigger. I wondered if he would actually shoot me a second time though.
“Who’s Dan?” Jack asked as he cleaned up some of the glasses that were in the sink. It was weird seeing him do such work, as he was a crime lord for this planet and always had someone else to do the dirty work while he, well, did dirty work.
I frowned and glared at him. “I told you to stop reading my mind.”
“I was just curious about what you were thinking while you used your powers. I’m sorry, it won’t happen again, I promise.”
For some reason, I didn’t entirely believe him.
“Yeah, whatever.” I stared at the bottle and sighed. “Dan was just a trainer, he is better than anyone I have ever met at fighting.”
“Even me?”
“You use unfair tactics most of the time. Dan doesn’t use any weapons or any sort of cheap tricks. Sheer strength and smarts. He also taught me how to use my powers, if only for a couple of days. I wish I was able to learn more from him.” And I really meant that. Although his tactics were strange, I did learn from him and I knew that if he was here, he would be able to help me get the damn peanut inside the beer bottle.
“And shot you to do that? That doesn’t seem like something an instructor should do. Not a credible one anyways.”
“Seriously? Stop reading my mind.”
“Last time.”
“But yes, he did shoot me. And it worked, the next time we were out on that island, I was able to control different elements. But I’m still lacking. Logan easily made the fire around him disappear. I have so much to learn.” And it was true, I had so much to learn and now I had no one to teach me. I had no one to help me.
“I could teach you, and instead of punishing you if you fail, I could most definitely reward you,” Jack gave me one of his famous winks.
I rolled my eyes. “Really? Gonna make jokes like that?”
He just laughed. “Sorry, Cadi, I forgot you liked it rough. You like the danger versus the rewards.”
Sad to say he probably was right. I got myself in a lot of messes over the years, but I never looked for a reward after it all. I just wanted to show that I was tough enough to defeat anything, and if I failed then I would most definitely have died, if not just get seriously injured.
And that always excited me for some reason. Or maybe I just had a death wish. One couldn’t be too certain.
“You really think you could teach me?”
He stopped cleaning the mug he had in his hand and leaned against the table. “Yes, it’s easy. I just have to tell you one thing.”
“Oh? And what’s that?”
“If you fail, Nygard will destroy you. And me. He could come walking through that door at any second and you need to be able to beat him now. Not later. Now. If you don’t do this, we are all screwed. We will all die. Stop thinking about all the others that have been in the way and think of your ultimate goal. Of whom you have to defeat. You don’t know when, you don’t know how powerful he is, so you need to get your act together and focus on being as strong as you can be to save your own ass. Got it?”
I stared at him. He was right, I didn’t think of this as being in the present, I just kept thinking about how I would defeat Nygard in the future. I needed to think about the present, that this second could be our last. That if I didn’t become as powerful as I could at once, I could lose it all.
But could Nygard really walk through that door at any second? Where had he been this entire time? It seemed strange to me that we hadn’t run into him if he was free of his prison on Sanshli, that there was no word of him being alive anywhere. Where would he go first? If I was him, what would I do first?
I would look for my daughter who was supposed to bring my destruction. Yeah, that was probably what I would do. So I needed to get my act together fast.
I grabbed the peanut and I didn’t think about anything. I just knew that it could go through the glass because I wanted it to. I was a Sanshlian, I was the daughter of the most powerful Illusionist throughout time itself. Anything was possible.
And it worked, the peanut went through the glass and fell to the bottom of the empty bottle.
Smiling, I looked over at Jack. It was the little things that made me want to boast, though I hadn’t decided whether or not this feat was little or big. It was complicated, I give it that.
“Good job,” Jack said. “Now get it out.”
I sighed. Here I thought I had accomplished
so much only to have to start all over again.
***
After cutting my fingers on the glass, because apparently one couldn’t lose their focus as they put their hand through glass or they are in for a lovely treat, I got the peanut out. Jack got me some bandages, though it wasn’t long before they were healed. I held the bloody peanut up in triumph.
“Ah ha! I did it!”
“You should probably practice it a few more times before we break into the most highly secured building of Recar.”
“Don’t you find it a bit sad that the highest security building on Recar is where they keep the trophy for the races?” Because I sure did. I mean, who in their right mind thought ‘oh, here’s a trophy for some races, we should build a fortress for it to make sure no one will steal it’. Then again, it was Recar and there were many, many thieves lurking around. I really couldn’t blame the developers of such a fortress in the slightest.
“Oh, Cadi, it makes perfect sense. The trophy is one of the most expensive things on this planet. Whoever wins it melts it down and can feed and clothe their family for life, not to mention they can get a job with someone like me.”
Memories of the first time we met came flooding back to me. In order to get close to Jack, I had entered the races. “That’s right, that’s how I ended up with you in the first place. But we know it wasn’t just my skill that you were interested in.”
Jack simply smiled. “It’s not any day some girl comes and beats all the big shots in town, not to mention no one had ever heard of her.”
“Which brings us to the trophy. How are we going to get it back?” I asked.
“Easy, you are going to win the races. Or I am, either of us should win really.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Did he really think that we had enough time to wait for the races that wouldn’t happen for a few months from now? I guess it gave us time to train, for me to learn more about my powers. Maybe by then, I will know just where Nygard was.
“You really think that’s a good idea?” I asked. Although I had won it in the past, I really didn’t know what the competition would be like here, whether or not I could win. Although I trusted that we could beat whoever it was we were up against, I didn’t want to worry about messing up.
“It will be fine, Cadi, there are two of us. If one of us messes up then the other will win. Besides, if someone else wins, we will just follow them and take the gem out of the trophy. Easy as that.”
I tapped my finger on the table. He did have a point, there were other ways we could retrieve the gem. “Then we will have to hightail it to Sanshli. With everyone.” I rubbed my forehead. I forgot the part where we needed to make sure everyone was going to be on Sanshli. It just kept getting more and more complicated. “How is that going to work?”
“What, do I have to come up with everything? Besides, we have time to figure that out, the races aren’t for another four months. They haven’t even closed the registers to enter, we still have a month to sign up.”
I kind of wondered how he knew that, as if he was already thinking about entering. It really wouldn’t have surprised me, that he was so bored that he wanted to join the races. “Good point, there’s a lot going on that we don’t understand. Hopefully we figure it out by then.”
Jack nodded. “Agreed. So keep practicing, then we will do this for real.”
“Yeah, I know. Practice a billion more times so that I perfect it. Sound like Dan. I think his favorite word is ‘again’.”
He simply laughed as he turned on the television. Recarian news was definitely more entertaining than that of any other planet’s news. Always about murder cases, rivals, and then sometimes about an old lady with lots of cats. Very diverse and interesting. I hated listening to the news anywhere else, but here it was like it was designed to keep your interest instead of inform one of what was happening. Let’s be honest, no one here really cared about each other’s affairs unless they were good gossip conversations.
As I tried to get the peanut to go through the glass again, something on the screen caught my eye. A dark-haired man was on the screen, one that I had seen before. “Wait. Who is that?”
Jack glanced up. “Oh, him? Don’t you know your Recarian history? He is the head of Himeo and is securing the trophy as we speak, actually. That’s what this news clip is about.”
I let out a laugh. It was the man who hit on me on the Class One ship. It was the guy that reminded me of Jack, and now I knew why. “I think I have an idea of how we are going to get in the building.”
CHAPTER 22
Jack hated my idea, though he hated most ideas that I came up with, especially when they involved hitting on other men. But it was the best way to get in. Crime lords were easily manipulated, when you knew what to do, and I could easily handle myself against him or any of his lackeys. I was stronger than before, after Dan’s training, not to mention I now had powers.
And Jack had my back, as he always did on Recar and pretty much anywhere. I was glad to have him on my side because if he wasn’t, I would have one formidable opponent on my hands.
Jack, for some odd reason, had a dress that fit me perfectly. I asked him exactly why he had such a dress and he swears that it was because he saw it and it reminded him of me so he bought it. It all sounded a little fishy, but I doubted Jack would ever lie to me. He just wasn’t the type of guy who would cheat on someone they loved.
Usually.
I put the short, curve-hugging, black dress on, did my hair in curls, which I honestly hadn’t done for a long while. Hair curlers sucked, I swore. I always burnt myself, but at least I could heal faster now. And I usually hid my fingers with some kind of gloves. Not this time though, at least he wouldn’t know what the barcode was for, as the Kamps hadn’t been created… yet. It would be a few more years off, actually. I thought about making sure Joss didn’t make them again, but it really didn’t matter at this point. All that mattered was finding Sanshli and stopping all the horrible things associated with it from ever happening. Too much manipulation of past events for one’s own devices would be emulating too many bad traits of my brother, anyways.
Jack took me to the bar he figured the head of Himeo would be at. It was where the Himeo boss always hung out at night. I asked if that meant his enemies knew where he was. He just shrugged it off and said it was like a safe zone for each city. Yeah, like that made sense. Crime-lords with codes they lived by. Whatever, I wasn’t one to question things on this planet. I would never get a straight answer.
So here I was, heading towards the bar. I couldn’t believe I had been so lucky to run into the head of Himeo. I wondered why he was taking just a public ship like that. He probably had a reason, wanting to lay low. Or just get away for a while, which seemed about as likely. I would probably ask, then I would have at least one thing to talk about.
I got to the bar, about five security guards were at the door, checking people for weapons and judging them to see if they were okay to go in. I got to the front of the line and the guard acted as if he was going to pat me down.
“Really?” I asked. “You can’t tell that I have no weapons with this dress?”
He shrugged and still patted me down and checked my purse. The purse appeared to have just normal things in it: blush, tape, comlink, and lipstick.
Of course, the tape was so I could get the fingerprints to get into the most secured building in Himeo.
I made it sound like it was going to be easy to get into the building. It wasn’t, but luckily I had someone who knew the layout like the back of his hand, not to mention I could listen to the building, know where people waited for us inside it. All we needed was a few things to get in, access codes and the like. Jack had the number, but he didn’t have the right fingerprint.
And that’s where I came in.
All I needed was his glass, and I was golden. It would be easy to get, all I needed was to have a couple of drinks with him, and then leave the bar with the fingerprint on the tape.
That was it. Easy.
Except plans never went how they were supposed to when I was in charge.
All the same, it would get done and we would have the gem in the trophy by morning. Then we could train and get ready to defeat Nygard. And, of course, figure out how we would get everyone to be on Sanshli.
The guard nodded and I walked in.
It was loud. Really loud. Jack never had the music blaring at this volume when he was in charge. And it was definitely not my type of music, and I liked a lot of music. Whatever, I would get over it.
I spotted him right away. He was at the bar talking to a couple of guys, probably some men who had a lot of power, through money or some sort, in the city. I walked up to the bar close to him, but not too close as to seem obvious.
As I ordered a whiskey, I could feel his eyes on me. So he did remember me, that was good. I just hoped he wouldn’t be mad still that I blew him off.
Then again, if he was like Jack, he would be persistent.
Just as I thought that, I saw him dismiss himself with his colleagues and walk over to me right as the bartender handed me my drink.
“Let me guess, a whiskey?” he asked as he leaned against the bar next to me.
I took a sip and turned to him. “Maybe it is.” I waved the glass around to exaggerate where we were. “Quite a place. Wouldn’t have guessed this was all yours.”
He laughed as he took in the sights as well. “Not just this place, but the whole entire city and everything in it.”
Cocky as a certain crime lord I knew. I just hoped Jack didn’t read my mind when I thought that, not that it mattered. He knew I thought he was cocky. It was just how people like him acted, and who could blame them. Look at all the power they had, everyone did all they could to please them. Which, at times like this, made it much easier for me to get what I wanted. “Everything in it you say?”